


ambiguous pranks

by mattholomuse



Series: McGenji Week 2k17 [4]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: M/M, after blackwatch but they havent joined overwatch/talon/whatever yet, mention of blackwatch era antics, this takes place in like. i dont fucking know honestly. make it up., tw jic these boys joke a little abt their trauma (mostly the loss of limb sort)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-29
Updated: 2017-11-29
Packaged: 2019-02-08 11:30:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12863571
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mattholomuse/pseuds/mattholomuse
Summary: Genji and Jesse have developed a habit of staying in abandoned buildings. Genji shows off. Jesse complains. They are very in love. Genji is a son of a bitch.





	ambiguous pranks

**Author's Note:**

> mcgenji week day 4 - steel

“That isn’t fair!” Genji exclaimed, blinking away the dots fizzling in his vision. His visor was streaked with whatever powder Jesse kept in his flashbangs, and his eyes ached behind his mask.

“You’re ninja with sticky wall-climbing feet, Gen, all _I_ have are musical spurs. You gotta give me _somethin’,”_ Jesse responded, twirling his practice gun around a gloved finger. Sweat slicked his brow.

The metal on the back of Genji’s hand squealed against his visor as he struggled to wipe the powder away; it did not bother him, really, but he liked to look put together, at least a little.

“I’m missing most of my limbs!” Genji said.

“I’m missing an arm,” Jesse retorted.

“I used to have knives for feet.”

“I have to roll around in the dirt to get places!”

A thin silence settled thoughtfully between them, either considering the plight of the other. It was whole-body amputation versus rolling around in the dirt. Genji burst into erratic laughter.

“You can have this one, Jesse,” he said through his bouncing, gleeful giggles. Jesse joined him, tilting his shaggy head back and holding his belly. His hat fluttered to the floor, landing with a graceless _thmp._ They laughed harder.

Jesse twirled his gun. As it slowed to a stop, so too did their laughter. Soon, they only let the occasional snicker pass their lips; they had not come to this abandoned building to have a good laugh, they had come to spar. And sleep. And maybe a little more, should they need some warming up.

Genji pressed his flesh fist into the palm of his robotic one, pushing until he heard a short series of pops. He shook his hand out and reached for his katana.

“I’ve a question, if you don’t mind,” Jesse said. The katana hissed out of its sheath, glinting in the light.

Genji nodded. He tossed the blade high in the air. It spiraled and whistled, bearing down on Genji with an angry _shhhing._ As easy as one tied their shoes, Genji leapt to catch it by its hilt. He landed on his toes, blade crossed over his chest.

“What is it with us and old buildings? Just last week we were holed up in an old Taco Johns-”

“And you found that fossilized Tater Tot, I remember.”

“Yeah. And the day before that we passed out in that haunted house, remember?”

“Was it haunted?”

“I’m pretty sure it was haunted, Genji. I woke up in the middle of the night and Peacekeeper was hanging from a creepy old deer head,” Jesse continued.

At times like this, Genji was grateful for his mask. It hid the massive grin blossoming beneath it - he had been the one to move Peacekeeper. At the time, Jesse had not shown any sign it bothered him. Genji now knew his prank had been effective.

“Wait a minute,” said Jesse, eyes narrowed. “Wait a minute. I know that silence.”

Genji stood straight up, holding his hand over his heart. “What silence, may I ask?”

“You _shit.”_

“I have no clue what you’re talking about.” Genji idly rolled the hilt of his katana between both hands. 

“You were the ghost that moved my gun,” Jesse accused with a pointed finger. His knuckle glinted in the light, much the same way Genji’s katana did.

He pretended to think for a long five or so seconds, pretended to consider his words carefully, as if walking on eggshells. He wasn’t, of course, if the humorous lines branching from Jesse’s eyes were any tell.

“I was the ghost who moved your gun. You’re fun to prank, Jesse.” It was not an admission he was ashamed of, nor was it one Jesse was angry with. “Do you remember the first time _you_ pranked _me_ , at HQ?”

Jesse tapped his boot against the ground, spurs jingling with each shift.

“Remind me.”

Genji sheathed his katana and stepped forward, gripping Jesse’s steel arm with either of his hands. Sometimes it amazed him how big Jesse was, then it occurred to him that Genji was just small; lithe, more accurately. He was lithe to Jesse’s broad, the impulse to Jesse’s calculation.

“I had just arrived, if you recall. I was scared, and angry, and depressed. My body was not the body I had grown with, nor one that would ever grow with me,” Genji said as he circled Jesse’s shining knuckles with the pads of his fingers.

“You’d been there… a while. HQ had become your home. Ana told you not to strut about like you owned the place once, but it was your home, why should you not?

“Anyway, you heard about me before you met me. You decided the best course of action would be to make me more comfortable. To make me feel welcome in this foreign environment. So you-” Jesse cringed. “You remember, don’t you?”

“Yeah, unfortunately I do. Sorry about that one, sweet pea.”

Genji laughed. “Don’t apologize. You were trying to make me feel better. You failed terribly, but it’s the thought that counts, is it not? You bought me dinner. You weren’t bad.”

“Yeah. And you pranked me back,” Jesse said. “Yours was pretty good. I’ve put my hat on carefully ever since.”

Genji bumped Jesse’s shoulder with his head. They hadn’t a lot of ways to express intimacy when Genji wore his visor - this was one of their few ways. Nuzzling, cuddling, enjoying each other’s presence. 

With a soft sigh and a gentle hum, Genji decided that he did not mind running from warehouse to warehouse, so long as Jesse was at his side.


End file.
